Resorting product suggestions for a user interface

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method includes generating a first list of products to recommend to a user. The following steps are then repeated: removing a first product from the first list and placing the first product in a second list wherein the order of the products in the second list determines the order that products appear on a user interface; and comparing each remaining product in the first list to the product placed on the second list and moving products that are similar to the product placed on the second list further down in the first list. A user interface is then generated from the second list to show suggested products to a user.

BACKGROUND

Online retail shopping involves consumers visiting one or more websitesto select and purchase products. Users can sign into accounts on someretail websites allowing them to store their past purchases, commonlyused shipping addresses and credit card information.

Some retail websites make suggestions for other products that a user maylike based on products that the user views, places in their shoppingcart, or actually purchases.

The discussion above is merely provided for general backgroundinformation and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining thescope of the claimed subject matter. The claimed subject matter is notlimited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted inthe background.

SUMMARY

A computer-implemented method includes generating a first list ofproducts to recommend to a user. The following steps are then repeated:removing a first product from the first list and placing the firstproduct in a second list wherein the order of the products in the secondlist determines the order that products appear on a user interface; andcomparing each remaining product in the first list to the product placedon the second list and moving products that are similar to the productplaced on the second list further down in the first list. A userinterface is then generated from the second list to show suggestedproducts to a user.

In a further embodiment, a processor performs steps that includeremoving a product from a first list of products based on a score forthe product, adding the product to a second list of products, and foreach product remaining in the first list of products, altering the scoreof the product based on similarities between the product and the productadded to the second list of products. A user interface is generated todisplay products in the second list of products.

A system includes a memory a memory containing a first list of products,each product having an associated score and a processor. The processorgenerates a second list of products from the first list of products bysequentially selecting products from the first list of products to addto the second list of products based in part on a similarity between theproduct selected from the first list of products and the products in thesecond list of products. The processor then generates a user interfacedisplaying the products in the second list of products as suggestedproducts for a user.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 provides a flow diagram for generating a user interface showingrecommended products.

FIG. 2 provides a block diagram of elements used in the method of FIG.1.

FIG. 3 provides a flow diagram for forming a product vector.

FIG. 4 provides an example of a web page for a product in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 5 provides a flow diagram for forming a user vector.

FIG. 6 provides a flow diagram for creating an ordered list ofrecommended products for a user.

FIG. 7 provides a flow diagram for resorting products to form arecommended product list.

FIG. 8 provides an example user interface allowing a user to select acontrol to request recommendations for the user.

FIG. 9 provides a user interface showing a list of recommended productsprovided to a user.

FIG. 10 provides a block diagram of a computing device that may be usedin the several embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the embodiments described below, a list of recommended products for auser is generated and displayed to the user in a user interface. Togenerate the list of recommended products, each product is scored basedon a combination of a similarity between a product vector for theproduct and a user vector for a current user, the recency of theproduct's launch, and the likelihood that other users who also boughtone or more products ‘liked’ by the current user would buy the product.The product vectors for each product are formed by tokenizing web pagesfor the product and assigning weights to the tokens based on what fieldsthe tokens appear under within the web page. In addition, the productvector includes attributes set by a vendor or a merchant for the productin a database where each attribute is assigned a weight.

In accordance with some embodiments, the displayed list of products areinitially chosen based on the combination of the product vector-uservector similarity, the recency of the product launch, and the likelihoodthat a person who bought a product ‘liked’ by the user would also buythe listed product. This initial listing is resorted so as to dispersesimilar items in the recommendation list. In accordance with oneembodiment, the products are dispersed based on similarities betweentheir product vectors.

FIG. 1 provides a flow diagram for generating a user interface showingrecommended products for a user and FIG. 2 provides a block diagram of asystem 200 consisting of a client 202 and a server 204 that can be usedto perform the method of FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments.

At step 100 of FIG. 1, product vectors are formed by a product vectorconstructor 206 on server 204. FIG. 3 provides a flow diagram forperforming step 100.

At step 300 of FIG. 3, product vector constructor 206 selects a productfrom product entries 208. Each product entry of product entries 208includes web page content 210 for the product, attributes 212 for theproduct, and a launch date 214 for the product. At step 302, productvector constructor 206 retrieves the product web page content 210, alsoreferred to as the product web page. At step 304, for each field of theweb page content 210, product vector constructor 206 forms tokens fromthe text in the field. In some embodiments, the text tokens are singlewords or terms found in each field. Product vector constructor 206 alsoapplies a field weight to each token, where the field weight is selectedfrom field weights 216, which provide a separate weight for each fieldin web page content 210.

FIG. 4 provides an example of a web page 400 showing different fieldsincluding a title field 402 and a bullet point field 404. The view ofweb page 400 also includes a user review tab 406 that provides access toan additional user review field that is hidden in the view shown in FIG.4. The web page content for web page 400 includes text and images thatare shown in the view of FIG. 4 as well as the text and images that arehidden in the view of FIG. 4 but that can be accessed using one or morecontrols on web page 400 such as tab 406. In accordance with oneembodiment, fields that are more specific or unique to a particularproduct are provided with a higher or larger weight than fields that aremore generic and thus apply to several products. For example, in webpage 400, the text tokens in title field 402 are given a greater weightthan the tokens in bullet point field 404 or the tokens in the userreview fields accessed through tab 406.

At step 306, for each token on the web page, the weights assigned to thetoken from the different fields the token appears in are summed to forma total weight for the token. Thus, if a token appears in severalfields, the weights for each field are summed to form a total weight forthe token. In accordance with some embodiments, if a token appearsseveral times within a same field, it is only provided with the weightof the field once.

At step 308, each of the token weights is multiplied by a common tokendiscount 207 to produce a final weight for the token. Common tokendiscount 207 is specific to each token and reduces the final weight oftokens that are common in the language such as prepositions, articlesand common verbs such that common words are weighted less than uncommonwords.

At step 310, product vector constructor 206 retrieves attributes 212from product entries 208 for the product. Product vector constructor 206then retrieves the weights for the attributes of the product fromattribute weights 218. Attributes for the products can include thingssuch as colors, sizes, brands, price, genre and so forth. The attributes212 for the product and the attribute weights 218 can be set by theretail merchant or by the producer or vendor of the product. Attributes212 are stored separately from web page content 210.

At step 312, the web page tokens and the attributes along with theirweights are used to form a product vector 220 that will be stored in theproduct entry 208 for the product. In accordance with one embodiment,each unique web page token and each attribute form a separate dimensionof the product vector. In addition, the web page token dimensions areweighted by the final weight determined at step 308 for the web pagetoken and the attribute dimensions are weighted by the attributeweights. Once the product vector is constructed, it is stored as productvector 220 in product entries 208 for the product.

At step 314, product vector constructor 206 determines if there are moreproducts. If there are more products, product vector constructor 206returns to step 300 and selects a new product. Steps 302-312 are thenrepeated for the new product. When there are no more products at step314, the process ends at step 316. The process of FIG. 3 results in aseparate product vector for each of a plurality of products available onthe retail site.

Returning to FIG. 1, after the product vectors have been formed at step100, a “like” control module 224 in server 204 receives an indicationthat a user has selected a “like” control on a web page to convey thatthey like a product. For example, in FIG. 4, web page 400 includes alike control 408 that when selected by the user causes an identifier forthe product to be sent to “like” control module 224, which stores theproduct identifier as a liked product 226 in user records 228 for theuser. In accordance with one embodiment, the indication that a user has“liked” a product or item is received without receiving an indicationthat the user purchased the product or item.

At step 104, a user vector constructor 230 creates or updates a uservector based on the received indication that the user liked a product.FIG. 5 provides a flow diagram of a method for creating or updating auser vector at step 104.

In step 500 of FIG. 5, user vector constructor 230 receives credentialsof the user such as a user ID if the credentials had not been previouslyreceived. The user's credentials are used to search user records 228 tofind a user record that contains user credentials 232 that match theprovided user credentials. At step 502, user vector constructor 230retrieves a user vector 234 from the user record 228 if a user vectorwas previously constructed for the user. At step 504, user vectorconstructor 230 retrieves the product vector 220 of the product liked bythe user. At step 506, user vector constructor 230 averages the productvector retrieved at step 504 with the current user vector 234 to form anew or updated user vector. If there was no previous user vector 234,the retrieved product vector is set as the user vector. At step 508, thecreated or updated user vector is stored back to user records 228 asuser vector 234.

Returning to FIG. 1, after the user vector is created or updated, a listof recommended products for the user is created or updated at step 106by a product suggestor 236.

FIG. 6 provides a flow diagram for creating a suggested product list fora user. At step 600, a reverse index searcher 238 performs a search of aproduct reverse index 240 to identify all of the product vectors thatcontain at least one dimension of the user vector such as one of thetokens or attributes in the user vector. In other words, the search ofproduct reverse index 240 is performed to locate all product vectorsthat have at least one dimension in common with the user vector. At step602, the product vectors identified in step 600 are compared to uservector 234 by a vector comparator 242 of product suggestor 236. Inaccordance with one embodiment, this comparison involves a cosinesimilarity comparison. The comparison of step 602 generates a similarityscore for each product vector based on the similarity between the uservector and the product vector.

At step 604, a subset of product vectors, such as the top k productvectors, based on similarity scores are selected where k is from 2-50 inaccordance with some embodiments. In selecting the top k productvectors, product suggestor 236 is ensuring that the similarity score forthe selected products is sufficiently high to warrant determining arecency score and a collaborative filter score for the product vector asdetermined below. By limiting the calculation of the recency score andcollaborative filter score to only the top k product vectors, theseembodiments improve the operation of the server by reducing the numberof operations that the server must perform.

At step 606, a recency decay function is applied to the similarityscores to alter the similarity scores so that scores for products thatare more recently launched are increased relative to scores for productsthat were launched less recently. In particular, for each product of thetop k products, a launch date 214 for the product is retrieved fromproduct entries 208 by recency decay scorer 244, which also receives thesimilarity scores for the k products. The launch date represent the datea product was made available to consumers at a retailer. Recency decayscorer 244 uses the launch dates to determine a recency score for eachproduct then combines the recency score with the similarity score toform a new score for the top k products.

At step 608, a collaborative filter score 246 in product suggestor 236determines a collaborative filtering score for each of the k products.In accordance with one embodiment, the collaborative filtering score fora product is based on the likelihood that other consumers who bought aproduct liked by the current user would also buy the current product. Inparticular, an association matrix builder 250 examines lists of boughtproducts 252 of all the users in user records 228 and identifies acategory association matrix that indicates the relative likelihood of auser buying one category of products if they have bought a product inanother category of products. Collaborative filter score 246 uses thecategory association matrix produced by association matrix builder 250and the list of products liked 226 by the user to provide a likelihoodscore for each of the k products that indicates the likelihood thatother users would buy a product or item from this product's categorygiven the category of a product or item liked by the current user. Inaccordance with one embodiment, each product will receive a separatecollaborative filtering score for each product liked by the user andthese separate collaborative scores will be combined to form a singlecollaborative filter score for each of the k products.

At step 610, product suggestor 236 combines the similarity score, therecency score and the collaborative filter score to form a final productscore or total score for each of the k products. In one embodiment,combining the scores involves adding the similarity score, the recencyscore and the collaborative filter score together.

At step 612, the final product scores are used to form a first list ofproducts to display on the recommendation web page. In accordance withsome embodiments, the first list of products is viewed as an orderedlist of products with the product with the highest final product scoreat the top, referred to as the top product, and the product with thelowest final product score at the bottom.

At step 614, the products in the first list are rescored to dispersesimilar items to form the final product recommendation list 262, whichis also referred to as a second list. The method of step 614 is shown inthe flow diagram of FIG. 7.

At step 702, the product with the highest score in the first list, thetop product, is selected as the next product to add to ordered productrecommendation list 262 by a resorter 260. If there is no orderedproduct recommendation list 262 yet, the selected product is inserted asthe first product in ordered product recommendation list 262. When theproduct is added to product recommendation list 262 it is added to theend of product recommendation list 262 so that the order the productsare added to product recommendation list 262 is maintained with productrecommendation list 262. At step 704, the product added to productrecommendation list 262 is removed from the first list.

At step 706, resorter 260 determines if more products are needed forproduct recommendation list 262. If more products are needed, resorter260 updates or alters the scores of the products remaining in the firstlist at step 708 by reducing the scores of products based on thesimilarity of the product vectors of each product to the product vectorof the last product added to product recommendation list 262. Thus, if aproduct in the first list has a product vector that is similar to theproduct vector of the product last added to product recommendation list262, its score is reduced more than the score for a product that has aproduct vector that is not as similar to the product vector of the lastproduct added to product recommendation list 262. In accordance with oneembodiment, a similarity score is determined using a cosine function andthe similarity score is subtracted from the previous score for theproduct to form the altered score for the product. Viewing the firstlist as an ordered list with the highest scoring product at the top ofthe list, altering the scores of the products in the first list based onthe similarities between the products and the last product added toproduct recommendation list 262 causes products that are similar to thelast product placed on product recommendation list 262 to move furtherdown in the first list.

After step 708, the process returns to step 702 where the product in thefirst list with the highest altered score is selected as the nextproduct to add to product recommendation list 262. Steps 702, 704, 706and 708 are repeated until no more products are needed to be added toproduct recommendation list 262. For example, in some embodiments, thenumber of products that can be displayed is limited such that when thelimit is reached, no further products need to be added to productrecommendation list 262. When no more products are needed to be added toproduct recommendation list 262 at step 706, resorter 260 stores productrecommendation list 262 in user records 228 at step 710.

Returning to FIG. 1, after resorter 260 has created productrecommendation list 262 at step 106, the process of FIG. 1 splits inparallel to steps 102 and step 108. In step 102, the process waits toreceive an indication that the user has liked another product and instep 108, the process waits to receive a request for recommendationsfrom the user.

FIG. 8 provides an example of a user interface 800 displayed on clientdevice 202, such as a display of a computing device or a mobile device.User interface 800 includes a product suggestion request control 804that allows a user to request “top picks for you”. When a user selectscontrol 804, client device 202 sends a request to product suggestioncontrol module 270 on server 204 to request product recommendations forthe current user.

Upon receiving this request at step 108, product suggestion controlmodule 270 accesses product recommendation list 262 for the current userand uses the product recommendation list 262 to generate a suggestedproduct user interface 272 at step 110. In particular, the order of theproducts in product recommendation list 262 is used to set or select theposition of the products in user interface 272 such that products higherin product recommendation list 262 are displayed closer to the top ofuser interface 272. Since the product's position in productrecommendation list 262 is based in part on the final product score ortotal score, the position of the product in the user interface isselected based in part on the final product score or total score.

FIG. 9 provides an example of a user interface 900 on a display 902,which for example can be a display on a computing device or a mobiledevice. User interface 900 includes an ordered list of suggestedproducts for the current user, such as products 904, 906, 908, 910, 912and 914. In accordance with the embodiment shown in FIG. 9, the userinterface can display pictures of the product as well as one or morecontrols related to the product, such as a control 916 to add theproduct to the user's current shopping cart, a pre-order control, suchas control 918 to allow a user to place an order for a product that isnot yet available and a shop brand controls, such as control 920 toallow the user to shop for all products in a brand. The shop brandcontrol 920 is made available when the product listed is for an entirebrand instead of for a single product within the brand. Products 904,906 and 908 are positioned higher in product recommendation list 262than products 910, 912 and 914.

FIG. 10 provides an example of a computing device 10 that can be used asa server device in the embodiments above. Computing device 10 includes aprocessing unit 12, a system memory 14 and a system bus 16 that couplesthe system memory 14 to the processing unit 12. System memory 14includes read only memory (ROM) 18 and random access memory (RAM) 20. Abasic input/output system 22 (BIOS), containing the basic routines thathelp to transfer information between elements within the computingdevice 10, is stored in ROM 18. Computer-executable instructions thatare to be executed by processing unit 12 may be stored in random accessmemory 20 before being executed.

Embodiments of the present invention can be applied in the context ofcomputer systems other than computing device 10. Other appropriatecomputer systems include handheld devices, multi-processor systems,various consumer electronic devices, mainframe computers, and the like.Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that embodiments can alsobe applied within computer systems wherein tasks are performed by remoteprocessing devices that are linked through a communications network(e.g., communication utilizing Internet or web-based software systems).For example, program modules may be located in either local or remotememory storage devices or simultaneously in both local and remote memorystorage devices. Similarly, any storage of data associated withembodiments of the present invention may be accomplished utilizingeither local or remote storage devices, or simultaneously utilizing bothlocal and remote storage devices.

Computing device 10 further includes a hard disc drive 24, an externalmemory device 28, and an optical disc drive 30. External memory device28 can include an external disc drive or solid state memory that may beattached to computing device 10 through an interface such as UniversalSerial Bus interface 34, which is connected to system bus 16. Opticaldisc drive 30 can illustratively be utilized for reading data from (orwriting data to) optical media, such as a CD-ROM disc 32. Hard discdrive 24 and optical disc drive 30 are connected to the system bus 16 bya hard disc drive interface 32 and an optical disc drive interface 36,respectively. The drives and external memory devices and theirassociated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage media forthe computing device 10 on which computer-executable instructions andcomputer-readable data structures may be stored. Other types of mediathat are readable by a computer may also be used in the exemplaryoperation environment.

A number of program modules may be stored in the drives and RAM 20,including an operating system 38, one or more application programs 40,other program modules 42 and program data 44. In particular, applicationprograms 40 can include programs for implementing product suggestor 236,product vector constructor 206, user vector constructor 230, “like”control module 224, product suggestion control module 270 andassociation matrix builder 250 Program data 44 may include data such asproduct entries 208, user records 228, suggested products user interface272.

Processing unit 12, also referred to as a processor, executes programsin system memory 14 and solid state memory 25 to perform the methodsdescribed above.

Input devices including a keyboard 63 and a mouse 65 are connected tosystem bus 16 through an Input/Output interface 46 that is coupled tosystem bus 16. Monitor 48 is connected to the system bus 16 through avideo adapter 50 and provides graphical images to users. Otherperipheral output devices (e.g., speakers or printers) could also beincluded but have not been illustrated. In accordance with someembodiments, monitor 48 comprises a touch screen that both displaysinput and provides locations on the screen where the user is contactingthe screen.

The computing device 10 may operate in a network environment utilizingconnections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer52. The remote computer 52 may be a server, a router, a peer device, orother common network node. Remote computer 52 may include many or all ofthe features and elements described in relation to computing device 10,although only a memory storage device 54 has been illustrated in FIG.10. The network connections depicted in FIG. 10 include a local areanetwork (LAN) 56 and a wide area network (WAN) 58. Such networkenvironments are commonplace in the art.

The computing device 10 is connected to the LAN 56 through a networkinterface 60. The computing device 10 is also connected to WAN 58 andincludes a modem 62 for establishing communications over the WAN 58. Themodem 62, which may be internal or external, is connected to the systembus 16 via the I/O interface 46. Order 206 is received through eithernetwork interface 60 or modem 62.

In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to thecomputing device 10, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remotememory storage device 54. For example, application programs may bestored utilizing memory storage device 54. In addition, data associatedwith an application program may illustratively be stored within memorystorage device 54. It will be appreciated that the network connectionsshown in FIG. 10 are exemplary and other means for establishing acommunications link between the computers, such as a wireless interfacecommunications link, may be used.

Although elements have been shown or described as separate embodimentsabove, portions of each embodiment may be combined with all or part ofother embodiments described above.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms for implementing the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:generating a first list of products to recommend to a user; repeatingthe following steps at least once: removing a top product from the firstlist and placing the top product in a second list wherein the order ofthe products in the second list determines the order that productsappear on a user interface; and comparing each remaining product in thefirst list to the product placed on the second list and moving productsthat are similar to the product placed on the second list further downin the first list; and generating a user interface from the second listto show suggested products to a user.
 2. The computer-implemented methodof claim 1 wherein products in the first list are ordered based on ascore for each product.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2wherein the score for each product is based in part on a similaritybetween a product vector for the product and a user vector for the user.4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein comparing aproduct in the first list to the product placed on the second listcomprises determining a similarity between a product vector for theproduct in the first list and a product vector for the product placed onthe second list.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 whereindetermining a similarity between a product vector for the product in thefirst list and a product vector for the product placed on the secondlist comprises determining a similarity score.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein moving products that aresimilar to the product placed on the second list further down in thefirst list comprises altering the score of each product in the firstlist based on the similarity score to form revised scores.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the steps that arerepeated are repeated until the first list is empty.
 8. Acomputer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions storedthereon that when executed by a processor causes the processor toperform steps comprising: removing a product from a first list ofproducts based on a score for the product; adding the product to asecond list of products; for each product remaining in the first list ofproducts, altering the score of the product based on similaritiesbetween the product and the product added to the second list ofproducts; and generating a user interface to display products in thesecond list of products.
 9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8wherein adding the product to the second list of products comprisesadding the product to an end of the second list of products.
 10. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein generating a user interfaceto display products in the second list of products comprises placingproducts from the second list of products in the user interface based onthe order of the products in the second list of products.
 11. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 8 further comprising removing a secondproduct from the first list based on the altered scores and adding thesecond product to the second product list.
 12. The computer-readablemedium of claim 11 further comprising for each product remaining in thefirst list of products after the second product is removed, altering thescore of the product based on similarities between the product and thesecond product added to the second list of products.
 13. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein altering the score of theproduct based on similarities between the product and the product addedto the second list of products comprises determining a similaritybetween a product vector for the product and a product vector for theproduct added to the second list of products.
 14. The computer-readablemedium of claim 8 wherein removing a product from a first list ofproducts based on a score for the product and adding the product to asecond list of products is repeated until the first list of products isempty.
 15. A system comprising: a memory containing a first list ofproducts, each product in the first list of products having anassociated score; a processor: generating a second list of products fromthe first list of products by sequentially selecting products from thefirst list of products to add to the second list of products based inpart on a similarity between the product selected from the first list ofproducts and the products in the second list of products; and generatinga user interface displaying the products in the second list of productsas suggested products for a user.
 16. The system of claim 15 whereinsequentially selecting products from the first list of productscomprises after selecting the product from the first list of products,removing the product from the first list of products, adding the productto the second list of products, and altering the score of each productremaining in the first list of products based on the similarity betweeneach product in the first list of products and the product added to thesecond list of products.
 17. The system of claim 16 wherein selecting aproduct from the first list of products comprises selecting the productbased on one of a score and an altered score for the product.
 18. Thesystem of claim 17 wherein altering the score of each product comprisesaltering the scores for products that are more similar to the productadded to the second list of products such that products that are moresimilar to the product added to the second list of products have alteredscores that cause a less similar product to be selected before the moresimilar product.
 19. The system of claim 15 wherein generating a userinterface displaying the products in the second list of productscomprises generating the user interface such that products appear in theuser interface in the order in which the products were added to thesecond list of products.
 20. The system of claim 15 wherein theassociated score of each product of the products in the first list ofproducts is based in part on a similarity between a product vector forthe product and a user vector for the user.